Das Wiener Schnitzel Kreig, 1848 - The Night Of The Hunter

Background

After the raid on his baggage camp, 'Il Cacciatore' was determined to regain his ill gotten goods, and so planned an ambush for the following day. Bouyed up by the arrival of a unit of Line Infantry, he made his plans and by a series of forced night marches, got ahead of the Austrians just before dawn.

'Fighting Joe' Radetsky was pleased with his loot, but wished he had gotten more. Not sitting on his laurels, he set of in the night to try to get back to the safety of Trauberk and its environs, where he and his troops could get a well earned rest. 

Austrian OOB

Kapitan 'Fighting Joe' Radetsky

2 x Line Infantry

1 x Light Infantry

3 x Jaegers

1 x Light Cavalry

Italian OOB

2nd Tenente 'Il Cacciatore'

3 x Line Infantry

1 x Light Infantry

1 x Dragoons

1 x Light Cavalry

Scenario J - A Long Way From Home

I took this as the basis for the campaign scenario, but made a few tweaks to fit in with the background:

• The first two Turns are early dawn, with visibility limited to 12". 
• The Austrians get to move first.

The Action

As always, the captioned photos will hopefully give you a feel for how the action unfolded. So without further ado:

A view of the battlefield. The Austrians are arriving from the NE corner, with the Italians equally split on the SE and NW corners.

The Austrians have the flanks well covered with Light Troops and Cavalry.

One part of the ambush force, consisting of Line Infantry and Dragoons.

The other half of the Italian force, with Line Infantry, Light Infantry and Light Cavalry.

Russell and Fenton from the Trauberk Thunderer are on hand to record events.

The long road which the Austrians need to traverse to reach safety.

The end of Turn 1. As dawn began to break, the Austrians moved down the road, but one unit of Line Infantry lagged behind. In the early morning light, the Italians could only hear the Austrians moving, but not see them to engage. They moved towards the sounds, but the Light Cavalry and Dragoons failed to advance.

Italian Line Infantry move forward to try and pin the Austrians in place, making out some dim shapes in the dim light of dawn.

Austrian troops on the left flank cover the baggage train.

The baggage train and guards.

As the Dragoons fail to move, the Line Infantry pass them to try and reach the road to seal off the Austrian escape route.

The Italians on the other side of the road move to try and ambush the Austrians.

'Il Cacciatore' strikes a pose on the ridge to encourage his troops forward with the cry of 'Avante!'

The end of Turn 2. The Austrian troops on the flanks began to engage the Italians, but to no effect due to the dawn light making it hard to target the enemy. The Italian response was patchy, but at least they had given the Austrians a surprise, even if not all of their troops moved forward to battle.

The Italian Line Infantry form Close Order to make the most of their first volley, if they can.

The Italian Line Infantry continue to try and advance to cut the road in the distance.

The Austrian left flank moves to engage the threat from the Italian troops formed up in Close Order.

On the Austrian right flank, the Jaegers come under fire and are Disordered as a result.

'Il Cacciatore' fails to make his troops move, despite repeated cries of 'Avante!'.

The Italian Light Infantry open fire on the Austrians.

The Italian Light Cavalry strike a pose.

Russell and Fenton capture them in all their glory!

The end of Turn 3. As morning arrives in all its glory, the Austrians make the most of the good light, causing the Line and Light Infantry on either flank to become Broken. The Italian Line Infantry manage to rally but the Light Infantry fail and Rout off the table! Once again the Dragoons fail to move, which is really hampering the Italian plans.

At least it looks like the Italians will be able to close the road soon, as their Light Cavalry is already there.

Austrian Light Infantry move forward to threaten the Light Cavalry by the road.

The baggage train is yet to halt.

The Italian Light Infantry rout!

Russell and Fenton on hand to record 'Il Cacciatore' as he moves his troops quickly forward and into line.

A 'position magnifique'.

The end of Turn 4. As the Austrians move to try and flank the Italian positions, they reply with some effective fire, but the Austrians hold firm. It is all in the balance at present...

The Italian Dragoons finally move, but the Line Infantry falter at a crucial moment!

The Italian Line Infantry are now at half strength and have little offensive capability.

The Italians form Close order as a tidal wave of Austrians move towards them.

Russell and Fenton see the tide possibly turning...

... and so capture 'Fighting Joe' leading his troops!

The end of Turn 5. As the Austrian right flank all miss with their shooting, the left flank steps up to the mark, causing the Line Infantry and Light Cavalry to rout! The Italians advance but quickly realise that the game is up and that discretion is the better part of valour.

The Line Infantry rout.

"Sod this for a game of soldiers!"

The Dragoons arrive too late to affect the game.

Russell and Fenton capture on the hill...

... to capture the moment of Victory!

End of the Game

All too quickly the Italian position become untenable and once again poor old 'Il Cacciatore' had nothing to show for encounter with 'Fighting Joe' Radetsky, who on the other hand had his star in the ascendent!

The Butcher's Bill, with Italian losses at the front, Austrian the back.

The Campaign

It is hard to see how 'Il Cacciatore' could come back from such a string off losses, most of which were all too one-sided. So he left the theatre of war to go and liase with Garibaldi and chums to see how, if given the chance, he could cross swords with his foe in the future. Time would tell...

Post Game Thoughts

Well I thought 'Il Cacciatore' would have a real chance in the game, but for multiple reasons, it just never worked out for him. So a few thoughts on why as follows:

• It's a funny old scenario upon which to base out action. All the Italians would need to do would be to deploy their troops as close to the bottom edge of their deployment zones, giving them a very good chance of sealing off the road in the first Turn or two. Not much of a game then, as the Austrians would be fighting a fairly static line of troops, losing all the narrative etc.
• Even with the 'free' Line Infantry unit, the Italians suffered from a lack of troops to close the road, hampered in no small part but the Dragoons failing to move for 3 Turns in a row. I think this is a tough scenario for the Italians to win, but didn't feel this when setting it all up, quite the opposite in fact.
• Allowing the Austrians to move first felt right, as moving second would have meant a great chance of a simple 'break the line' type game.
• The Italians did suffer more from poor command rolls and certainly some pretty bad Morale saves, which cost them the game early on. With the loss of the Light Infantry early on, they were very much on the back foot from then on.
• I completely forgot to use Radetsky's extra move allowance and the 'Fortuna Belli' which if I had remembered, might have made things even harder for the Italians.

What Next?

I had another scenario up my sleeve, dependent upon the outcome of this game, but in all honesty it feels the right place to end the campaign here and now. I've learnt a lot from these games and they have given me plenty of ideas to take forward for future narrative driven campaigns. I may do a post on my musings in due course, but let's wait and see.

I have been painting up some ECW units for another possible campaign, either set purely in the ECW and based around where I live, or re-visiting the 'Camberwick Green Chronicles' again with Dragon Rampant. After so many games of R&P, games wise something completely different is in order I think.

As mentioned previously, this is likely to be some AVBCW action or maybe even getting enough units painted so I can start my mini-campaign based around the Canadian landings, but with my fictional Regiments. Lets see what grabs me the most over the coming days.

Anyway, thanks for reading and I hoped you enjoyed the campaign and as always, any comments are greatly appreciated!

TTFN.